This invention relates to the field of methods used for locating sought individuals, and also to the field of lottery game cards, specifically to a method and lottery game card for increasing the likelihood of locating said individuals.
A major problem that affects society is that of missing persons, usually abducted children. Another problem is that posed by dangerous criminals wanted by the law and on the loose. Significant efforts and resources are dedicated to disseminating information about such individuals in order to locate them. Unfortunately, recovery rate of missing victims or capture rate of wanted criminals is far from satisfactory.
Presently there are different methods used to disseminate images of sought individuals with the purpose of recruiting volunteers from the community to join in the search efforts to locate such individuals by raising awareness in the general public about such persons"" likeness in order to increase the likelihood that someone will spot the individual-and ultimately lead to the location and recovery or capture of such individual.
Some of these methods are based on media such as television, radio, newspapers, special brochures, posters, flyers, milk cartons, and more recently, internet web sites, among others.
Television transmissions may reach a large sector of the population to present full color images of the sought person, but for very limited amounts of time given its relatively high costs, thereby reducing retention of the resemblance of the featured individuals. Some television programs, such as AMERICA""S MOST WANTED; dedicate its airtime to diffusing information about dangerous criminals on the loose, and also about missing children. However, once transmission ends; audiences relies solely on memory recall. Additionally, television is limited in its audience reach considering rating competitions and other factors intrinsic to this media.
Another popular media, the radio, is null in its capacity to disseminate visual graphic data, a key driver in facial recognition.
In relation to high tech media used to disseminate data such as web sites and other electronic internet based technologies, the results are not very encouraging either. Even though this particular channel delivers messages selectively and almost immediately, it is not yet massively widespread, and even when it does become so, users will be bombarded with messages of all types. Given the interactive nature of-the internet, users will still have the option of navigating to sites of particular interest, whereby sites delivering information about sought individuals will increasingly need to compete for a web surfer""s preference and attention.
One of the most popular and common of these media devices could be the type prepared in printed form such as flyers, posters, milk cartons, newspapers, etc. This particular type of media could possibly achieve the task of disseminating data more cost efficiently than most other media thanks to certain advantages such as a wider availability to the masses as a result of lower production and distribution costs.
However, as the public is often bombarded with messages of all types, most of the aforementioned media devices go unnoticed. Flyers delivered in the mail, for instance, are frequently discarded along with accompanying-paid mail advertisements, commonly known as xe2x80x9cjunk mailxe2x80x9d. Likewise, milk cartons on the breakfast table and posters displayed in high traffic areas tend to be detailed by fewer people than intended, and pictures published in the daily paper and specialized magazines may receive a brief glance by most readers.
Also, in order to create awareness in the general public about the need to locate said individuals, these orchestrated efforts rely on the public""s voluntary disposition, willingness, benevolence, philanthropic tendencies, mercy for the missing, desire for justice on the antisocial, and memory retention to consciously study and retain the featured individual""s resemblance, among other factors.
Fortunately, most search efforts are successful sooner or later thanks mostly to the due diligence of police departments, detectives, government organizations, nonprofit organizations, special forces, private agencies and other entities. Public involvement also plays a key role and complements these organized searches as sightings of a sought person are relayed by the public to the corresponding authorities by means of a telephone call to a dedicate hotline, etc.
Nonetheless, there is a the lesser portion of efforts which are not so successful. Parents and relatives of missing victims, and the community in general; suffer the anxiety and consequences of an individual who has been missing for an unusually long period of time. Additionally, society as a whole suffers the fear, threat and potential consequences of a wanted criminal on the loose.
Even though a portion of the community becomes involved in the search efforts, it usually represents a relatively small percentage of the population, insufficient to make the efforts successful all the time, and many times the participating public fails to study the facial characteristics of the featured individual in enough detail so as to spot said individual casually.
Additionally, the process by which the individual""s image and/or data is-compiled, printed on the selected media (poster, flyer, milk carton, etc.), the media processed, the hardcopy produced, transported, distributed, delivered and finally placed in front of a potentially true volunteer requires a significant effort and mobilization of resources which translate into expenses which are ultimately absorbed by the general public in the form of taxes or other payments.
As can be seen, several types of methods have been proposed and implemented in the crusade for the location and recovery or capture of sought persons. One of the main goals of these methods has been to involve the community in the search efforts to locate these individuals in order to complement organized searches and thereby increase the success rate of these efforts. Some of the mentioned initiatives may have certainly improved the success rate to some degree, but nevertheless all methods and media devices heretofore known for locating sought persons suffer from a number of disadvantages:
(a) They lack control over the public""s disposition to consciously study the featured individual""s resemblance and facial features.
(b) To motivate individuals to volunteer, all these efforts rely mostly on the philanthropy instincts, feelings of mercy, desire for justice, and/or the disinterested goodwill of the public among other factors, qualities which may not be exactly abundant in the general public.
(c) They fail to motivate users to refer to and study the featured person""s facial features repeatedlyxe2x80x94a factor which could translate in a significant increase in retention.
(d) Even though an individual may be motivated to volunteer, contribution is usually limited to memory retention, unless said individual carries a graphic reference of the featured person being sought.
(e) Printed media devices fail to motivate volunteers to keep and carry the graphic reference given that a volunteer may overestimate own retentive capability and discard reference prematurely.
(f) The high cost tied to these efforts is unlikely to be directly funded by the recipients in view of the absence of benefits or satisfactions different to those of benevolent nature (philanthropy, goodwill, etc).
(g) The cost of printing and delivering the media is high given that it is not targeted at specific public volunteers but rather disseminated massively to the general public regardless of recipient""s potential volunteer profile, resulting in an inefficient, ineffective and relatively expensive distribution.
(h) One of the most popular and most widely distributed printed media, the mailed flyer; rests in a recipient""s mailbox until retrieved, thus wasting the valuable opportunity of exposing its contents to by-passers.
(i) The cost of producing and disseminating one of the most popular media, the color poster, may be very high if massive dissemination is to be achieved.
(j) All of the aforementioned media is of a passive nature, i.e., prospects receive messages without the intervention of conscious action, thereby reducing intentional and proactive involvement of the public significantly.
Accordingly, several objects and advantages of the present invention are:
(a) Control over the public""s disposition to consciously study a featured individual""s resemblance and facial features, thereby increasing memory retention.
(b) To motivate individuals to volunteer, regardless of the presence of philanthropic instincts, feelings of mercy, desire for justice, and disinterested goodwill, thereby recruiting a larger number of volunteers.
(c) It urges users to refer to, and study a featured person""s facial features repeatedly, thereby increasing memory retention.
(d) To motivate individuals to keep and carry a conveniently-sized graphic reference of a featured person being sought, thereby allowing on the spot verification of a sighting while increasing real alarms about actual individuals and decreasing false alarms about look-alikes.
(e) The cost tied to the effort is directly and voluntarily funded by the targeted recipients regardless of the existence of benevolent intentions such as philanthropy, mercy, desire for justice, or the general need to cooperate with the community but rather as a result of the incentive of probable economical benefit; thereby freeing monetary, human and organizational resources to cover other needs.
(f). Maximizes the opportunity to constantly expose its contents to by-passers while on display through-a vast and diverse network of points of sale.
(g) Full-color images are massively disseminated and displayed at points of sale through a vast and diverse network at fully recoverable cost, thereby maximizing exposure of featured individuals to the general public while minimizing or eliminating printing and distribution costs altogether.
(h) The entertainment nature and game mechanic of the lottery card device urges users to become proactively involved in reception of the message, thereby increasing intentional involvement of the public significantly.
(i) The lottery card allows the display of images and other data about a featured individual to a user and through the game mechanics urges said user to learn a featured individual""s facial resemblance and other data, thereby increasing public awareness.
Further objects and advantages are to provide an inexpensive method which can be used to disseminate data about sought individuals, which can stimulate public awareness about said individuals in order to increase the likelihood of locating said individuals, and which can encourage the public to fund said efforts voluntarily and directly. Still further objects and advantages will become apparent from a consideration of the ensuing description and drawings.